Offers Roll In For Gilmartin

John McCormick

06/24/2015

With only his senior season left to play, linebacker Ryan Gilmartin is weighing his options of what college he would like to attend and ECU could be high on his list.

Rising senior at Charlotte Christian School (Charlotte, NC), Ryan Gilmartin, has seen his recruiting process pick up as of late. Currently Gilmartin has 12 offers and for now, East Carolina is not one of the school’s that have officially offered. As the offers continue to roll in for the 6-foot, 225-pound linebacker, he is not planning to attend any more camps this summer unless he feels like it is necessary.
“I don’t know if I’ll be doing any more camps, just because there has been a lot of schools already interested in me. If what’s keeping me from a school is a camp then I would gladly do it for the school but other than that I don’t know if I’ll be camping anymore,” Gilmartin said.
The rising senior began his high school sports career with a different goal in mind then what he has set in place now. As a freshman, Gilmartin had received scholarship offers from a lot of different schools, not for football, but for college lacrosse. In just three years of high school, Gilmartin has been All-state three times in lacrosse. Not even a week after Gilmartin’s high school coach sat him down and told him that schools were interested in him for football, he decided that college football would be the better option to pursue.
After a life changing decision, Gilmartin now has 12 programs such as Army, Connecticut, Ohio and Wake Forest that have officially offered him a football scholarship. So far the recruiting process has been a good one for Gilmartin and he recognizes the position that he is in.
“It’s a really good chance, it’s good to feel wanted and a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to pick the school of their choice, and that is a benefit that I have,” Gilmartin said.
ECU is not one of the top schools on Gilmartin’s list, but with his methodical approach of investing time into each school and giving each a fair shot, that could change quickly. The linebacker currently lists his interest in ECU on a ten-point-scale as a four or five. However, he did say that if they were more interested in him, asking for him to take a visit and they were to offer, it would easily change to an eight or nine.
The physical linebacker has singled out one big factor that could be that one deciding factor in what school he will choose. The most impactful factor that Gilmartin listed was education, he went on to say that the next 40 years of his life are far more important then the next four or five of playing college football. Gilmartin has decided that he would like to major in business law once arriving on a college campus.
The Charlotte native will choose wisely for a high quality education, however a factor that won’t be a major issue for Gilmartin is the location of the school and distance away from home.
“I have an offer from Hawaii, so it could be that far or right here in North Carolina. It’s not a huge deal to me and my parents, they want me to pick the best spot as if I lived right in that state, and they’re going to come see me play regardless of where I’m playing at,” said Gilmartin.
With another year left of high school for the class of 2016 recruit, continuing to improve his game is a must in order to smoothly take his game to the next level. So far Gilmartin has been focusing on just one of the aspects of his game to improve.
“I am becoming more of a student of the game, so not only knowing what I need to do but knowing what all the guys around me are doing, just so I can better my teammates and help everyone be in place,” Gilmartin said.
For Gilmartin the chance to continue to play the game he loves is all that matters to him. Recognizing that a very small percentage of high school football players get to continue their careers at the next level, he feels like that alone is the real treat, playing on TV and receiving the publicity is all just a bonus.